CAINAN. — I. Heb. Qénan, Gr. Káva (αἰμ), son of Enos (Gen. 5:9; 1 Chron. 1:2), grandson of Seth, great-grandson of Adam, who died at the age of 910 years (Gen. 5:14), and mentioned by St. Luke (3:37) in the genealogy of Christ.
II. Gr. Káva, another ancestor of Christ according to St. Luke (3:30), who calls him son of Arphaxad, grandson of Shem, great-grandson of Noah, and father of Sala. In the corresponding place of Gen. 10:24; 11:12 (cf. 1 Chron. 1:18) he is named in the Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew (nor in the Vulgate), where the descent passes directly from Arphaxad to Sala.
For both texts, from Genesis and from St. Luke, commentators hold differing opinions. Some believe that Gen. 10:24 should be supplemented in the Hebrew text on the basis of the Greek (thus, for example, Kittel does in the Biblia Hebraica [3rd ed., Stuttgart 1929]), or, as regards St. Luke, that Cainan does not belong to the form written by the Evangelist, since he is missing in Codex D (of Beza). More commonly it is held that for Genesis the Hebrew is preferable, confirmed also by the Samaritan Pentateuch, ancient and authoritative, and that St. Luke merely reports the genealogy as it is found in the Septuagint.